Pearl's Travels: Canterlot
by Makitk
Summary: Continuation of KAPT: /s/12110613/1/Kick-Ass-Pony-Torrents The Human-turned-Changeling Pearl and her adoptive clutch-sister Oval leave the safety of their hive to venture deeper into the pony lands of Equestria. First stop: Canterlot, where unforeseen circumstances cause a delay the pair of Changelings can't afford...
1. Chapter 1

The train cart jerked as it started to get pulled away from the station platform at Hollow Shades, and I felt an odd mix of emotions pass over me as I looked at the forest swallowing the last visual remnants of the town. Soon enough there were only trees passing by the window at increasing speed, and I let my yellow eyes wander to the Earthpony stallion sat across from me.

Oval peered back at me with his auburn eyes from under the overhang of his red mane, dislodging the reading glasses from his snout until they fell down to dangle around his neck. He put the folder he had taken from the station down beside him and raised an eyebrow my way.

"What's wrong, Pearl?" he asked, and I gave a light shake of my head, barely enough to set my green mane in motion.

"Feeling like I'm turning a new leaf, I guess," I remarked. "I feel like I'm leaving part of myself behind, a bit of budding homesickness perhaps?"

"I feel like that every time I leave Hoofton," Oval suggested with a smile. "It's fine, really. We can visit any time you want once you've settled in with us."

"That's not what I mean," I returned with a light furrowing of my brow. "You know I can't visit where I want to visit for a while yet."

"Ah, yes, that," Oval realized, giving a glance at the window beside us. "We can't let my mare know about that, but she'll probably welcome you into our home without too many questions."

"I'm not sure I'm following," I started, but Oval's right hoof raised up to shush me.

"Let me finish," he demanded in a soft tone of voice. "I mean she will fire off a few questions, expect answers from the both of us, but as long as you're friendly with her she will accept you for who you are, and leave our secrets at rest."

I stared at him, not knowing where he was going with this.

"Once my mare is satisfied you're not going to upset my relationship with her, we can take trips around Hoofton and I can teach you what I know," Oval continued unabated. "We'll meet with your friends in Ponyville in a year's time, and I hope I can help you to hone your skills before that time. With help from Breeze, Blaze, and the rest, I'm sure you can manage to find a way to return home without issue."

"Yeah, I had thought about that as well," I agreed. "I am going to need a lot of training before I'm ready to tackle that issue."

"As soon as you feel you're ready, my earlier statement still applies; we can go visit it any time you like," Oval repeated. "I'd personally love to see it myself some time."

I thought back at the portal through which I entered into the realm of Equestria and the world beyond it where I now had a criminal record. If nothing had been done about it, I was facing unemployment, potential homelessness, and had nothing left to my name, especially if I had basically disappeared off the radar for a whole year. If I did return at some point, I would have to overcome those issues in turn, possibly while dragging Oval or some other friend along for the ride.

Oval leaned in a bit. "Your ears are drooping."

"If I stop to think about it all, it's still overwhelming," I replied in a whisper. "I'm going to need to find solutions to so many problems, and help my abducted siblings do the same."

"Who knows? In a year's time they may seek you out and have the solution laid out for you? I heard say there were some smart foals among them," Oval suggested with a wink. "You can't carry all that weight on your own shoulders. You'll have to accept you have to spread it around some. Trust an Earthpony on that."

I chuckled weakly at the obvious attempt at a joke, giving her a nod. "Thanks. How long is the trip to Canterlot?"

"About an hour or two," Oval returned, leaning back on his seat. "We'll have to switch trains there but may be able to get something to eat before it leaves. The trip from Canterlot to Hoofton is a lot longer, with a few stops along the way, but there are no stops before we reach Canterlot."

"Define a lot longer?" I repeated while settling on my own seat.

"I keep forgetting to time it. I think it's about three hours? Three-and-a-half?" Oval muttered uneasily. "It's long enough that I forget when I left Canterlot by the time I arrive at Hoofton, or vice-versa."

"Three hours and fourty minutes from Canterlot to Hoofton," another pony remarked, and I looked up to see the conductor standing in the aisle between seats. "Baltimare's an hour past that on the same line. May I see your tickets please?"

"Oh, thank you," I replied, using my mouth to pull my ticket from the bag sat next to me on the seat and offering it to the Unicorn stallion in his blue uniform.

He quickly scanned it and snapped a hole in it with a small device, then turned to Oval who was still digging through his own bag.

"Sir? Your ticket please?" the conductor pressed, and Oval groaned in return.

"I know it's in here somewhere," my travelling companion mumbled with his face half-buried in the bag.

"Didn't you put it in your coat pocket?" I remembered, motioning to the brown overcoat folded up on Oval's other side. "I thought I saw you slip it in there because you didn't want to open your bag on the platform?"

Oval brought her head up, frowned at me, then reached for his coat. "I'm sure I put it in the bag, Pearl," he mumbled as he checked the pockets. "Oh, here it is... huh. You're right."

The ticket was quickly checked and a hole punched out by the conductor, who failed to remark about Oval's difficulty in finding his ticket due to sheer professionalism.

We waited for the stallion to continue on his path through the train before I just had to jab at Oval to release some tension.

"I see why Blaze thinks you should be supervised in your daily life," I suggested. "Is dementia a thing in this world? Are there other ponies who are as forgetful as you, 'cousin'?"

"Watch it, Pearl," Oval warned me with a snort. "I could just leave you in Canterlot to fend for yourself, or convince my mare to let you cook your own meals while you stay with us."

"I might burn the house down trying to cook for myself," I reminded him. "I am not sure your mare would want to take that risk. What was her name again?"

"Celery Stalk," Oval repeated for the fifth time today. "She's the most wonderful unicorn you'll ever meet."

"So her family are the Stalk family, then? Like how Pinkie Pie is from the Pie family?" I tried, pony genealogy still being somewhat of a mystery to me.

"No, hers is an offshoot from the Seed family. Her mother, Celery Seed, married to Sugar Stalk, who was himself part of the Cane family. I actually met his mother Candy Cane before she died," Oval listed.

"...and that makes sense to you, does it?" I tried, finding it exceptionally difficult to figure out how that family tree stuck together.

"It took me a while to accept it for what it is," Oval offered back with a shrug. "The best thing to do is not to overthink it. It makes sense to my mare, so I accept it as part of who she is."

I closed my eyes and reached up to rub with my forehoof at my temple for a moment. "I've known families back home who were so entwined that someone's uncle was their stepdad as well, but this just makes my head spin."

"Doesn't help you figure your own family tree out, does it?" Oval suggested calmly.

"Not really. I mean, if you're Hammer Hoof, and I'm Pearl... how do I relate to the Hoof family?" I wondered out loud.

"We could say you came from a far-away town somewhere only Blaze knows of. What was that one she mentioned before? Tall Tale?" Oval pondered. "I think that's over on the West Coast. Most of my mare's family has stuck to the East Coast, so they would not know the first thing about towns around there."

"Tall Tale sounds fitting," I remarked flatly, opening my eyes to look over at him again.

"If I remember correctly it's near a beach on either the Northern Lunar Ocean or Southern Lunar Ocean," Oval mumbled to himself. "We should find a map in Canterlot."

"I've always wanted to live near a beach, and now you're telling me that Pearl grew up near one? I'm getting jealous of my own guise," I chuckled weakly, leaning a bit closer to the window as the train sped out of the woods and the view opened up.

Oval turned his head as well, motioning out into the distance with his left forehoof. "There's a second set of tracks over there, leading to Manehattan. They will merge with ours shortly before we pass the Neighagra Falls. Sometimes you can catch the smoke rising from the other trains, but the ponies made sure the schedules differ enough that they're not in danger of crashing into us."

"Considering we still have half a day left in trains, I really don't want to consider crashing," I mumbled, shirking up a bit closer to the window so I could get a better view.


	2. Chapter 2

The train I was in lumbered on in the direction of Canterlot while I observed the lands to the North of our tracks, and it only took half an hour before I could see the Neighagra Falls in the distance. Our train rushed through a station positioned nearest to the falls without stopping, and soon they were behind us as the tracks turned away from them to lead us further South-Southwest on an almost straight path to Canterlot.

"You did say there were no stops before we would reach Canterlot," I remarked to Oval while falling back into a comfortable position on my seat. "Does any train stop at that station?"

"I think the line between Canterlot and Manehattan does. It's a tourist spot and very crowded in mid-summer," Oval explained. "You noticed Hollow Shades is a tourist location as well thanks to its secluded nature and the hot springs, right?"

"Yeah, I got that notion while in town," I agreed.

"For some reason the ponies don't want to connect the two with a direct line," Oval shrugged. "This one goes between Canterlot and Fillydelphia, but we can't take a train to Hoofton from Fillydelphia. We need to take the one between Canterlot and Baltimare instead. There's another line to Fillydelphia, coming from Canterlot, but it doesn't go through Hollow Shades."

"It's as confusing as the transportation back home," I remarked with a sigh. "You'd need a Master's Degree to figure out what line went where."

"Yeah, don't get me started. I travel across Equestria 'for work'," Oval suggested with a wink, knowing I had seen the great collection of donated items which our Changeling family had brought to the Hive, "so I take this line a lot. The transfer time from one train to another in Fillydelphia is just not worth it. The atmosphere in Canterlot is also vastly different from that in Fillydelphia."

"Vastly different in a good way, I expect?" I pressed, and Oval smiled at me.

"You'll see. I've come to enjoy my short stays there ever since we had that... thing," he coughed uneasily. "I'm glad we're not doing another one of those."

"So am I," I agreed. "I'm kinda curious about Canterlot, really. That show from back home did show it a few times, from various angles, but it was only enough to whet my appetite. I want to see more."

"Maybe we can take a longer trip there in the future? There's too many guards there to risk an accident, so I would want to see you handling the crowds in Hoofton or Baltimare first," Oval explained.

"That's fair," I agreed. "Are we there yet?"

"I think we're half an hour out," Oval pondered, looking between the left- and right-side windows to check our location. "You're not getting bored, are you?"

"Tired, more like it. I may need to take a nap on the way to Hoofton," I suggested. "Having left Hollow Shades, I guess the pressure of being in charge of organizing certain things has left me. It kind of forced me to keep my wits about me more. Now there's just the trip up ahead, I'm coming down from that rush."

"Or you're just getting hungry," Oval smirked. "If you can hold out to Canterlot we can figure out which it is and sort things out. We'll get a snack, a map, get our stories straight for my mare, and hop on the next train when you're ready for it, okay?"

"Sure," I agreed with a wry smile. "I don't think it's hunger, though."

"Pearl, you haven't felt it yet," Oval reminded me. "Not truly. Our group kept you fed while the others starved."

"I know, I know," I agreed, letting myself fall sideways on the seat I was on. "I told you I would let you know if I started to feel hungry."

"You should be feeling hungry, by all accounts. Did you even take from the lines this morning?" Oval wondered, not reassured by my casual reply.

"Yes, like every morning since you guys taught me how," I replied lazily, pulling my hooves up to my barrel. "I'm not saying I don't feel a bit of a pit growing in my tummy, but it's no worse than what I've been used to."

Oval stared at me. "You're not seriously trying to get some sleep, are you? We'll be in Canterlot in a matter of minutes!"

I frowned at him. "I told you I was feeling sleepy."

"And I told you to try and hold on to Canterlot," Oval bounced back, slipping off his seat so he could poke a hoof at my side. "Go on, push up."

"I'll tell Blaze on you," I mumbled defiantly, but his continued prodding forced me to sit upright again.

"We most likely won't see her for a year at best," Oval remarked. "I'll take the chance you'll have forgotten about this by then if that means I don't have to carry you out of the train on my back."

"You're a bother, cousin," I grumbled, trying to shake off the drowsiness I was feeling.

"I'm just looking after you, Pearl. You don't want to miss out on seeing Canterlot with your own eyes," he chuckled, moving onto the seat next to me. "I know a restaurant which I'm sure you will enjoy eating at."

I let myself sink sideways against his larger form and sighed. "Here's hoping they have this world's equivalent to coffee..."

Oval raised an eyebrow, turning his head to look down at me. "What's that?"

"Coffee? It's ground-up brown beans which contain caffeine. Perfect for staying awake on," I explained meekly. "One of the many things I'm pining for, although I think I kicked my cigarette addiction by now; rarely think about the things anymore."

"Addiction... sounds like those salt bars they have in the Southern Pony towns," Oval thought out loud.

"Or our hunger?" I suggested, peering up at him.

"Yes," Oval agreed with a wry smile. "But then all kinds of food or drinks are an addiction. We'd die without the love we take in, as you should know by now."

"A necessity," I mumbled.

"As is staying awake, Pearl," Oval chuckled, giving me a nudge with his elbow.

I grumbled at the nudge, but straightened my back and forelegs again. "Yes, yes, how much longer?"

Oval brought his right hoof up to point through the window at the tall mountain which quickly drew near. "We'll go through a tunnel in a moment, but are very nearly there."

I gave a slow nod. "Can't wait."

It did not take too long before the tunnel's darkness took possession of the train, and we sat in silence while waiting for it to pull into the station past it.

Just as the train started to slow down, and the unmistakable screeching of the brakes were heard, a blue flash passed through the cart, and I felt a spell of nausea hit me. It quickly took possession of me, and I noticed Oval was straining to keep his composure as well in what little light we had from the cart's lamps.

"What was that?" I asked, feeling worse with every breath.

"I have no idea," Oval returned in worry, stepping down from the seat and taking a few strained steps through the cart. "Some magic spell?"

My vision blurred and I felt like I was about to puke, all thought of holding my guise leaving me in favor of holding down my liquid breakfast. The green flash of my Changeling magic soon passed over me as I lost control of my guise, and Oval snapped to in surprise.

"Pearl, focus!" he all-but shouted at me.

Sitting on the seat as my Changeling self, I felt the nauseousness pull away again until I could actually focus on my guise again. The green flash moved over me as I returned to my Earthpony appearance, but the queasy feeling that had tried to overtake me before came back just as strongly not a moment later! I lost control again in mere seconds, much to Oval's distress!

I stared down at my grey bug-like hooves and licked around my fangs. "I can't hold my guise," I realized out loud, while a flash of green passed over Oval as well.

I looked up to see her going through the same motion of restoring it, then having it falter again.

"Whatever that spell was, it was aimed at us," she realized at once. "I can't keep my guise any more than you can, and I have a few years of experience on you."

I gave a slow nod as daylight returned to us, the train finally reaching the other end of the tunnel.

"I get physically ill when I try to hold it," I told her, even as her green magic left her horn for her to gather her belongings from the seat opposite mine.

"We can't stay on the train," Oval decided with great haste behind her words. "We have no option other than slip off before it hits the station; there are too many guards in this city. Get your stuff and follow me quickly!"

I slipped off the seat I was on as well, used my magic to lift my bag onto the blue chitin covering my back, and ran after Oval as she made for the back exit of the traincart.

We slipped out of the last traincart as the locomotive rolled into the station, and jumped off into the shadows beside the station platform, our bags falling around us in the bushes. As the train came to a stop, the Canterlot Royal Guards moving in to check its contents, the two Changelings they were searching for were huddled together in the bushes beside the station, desperately hoping nopony would spot them...


	3. Chapter 3

Oval and me lay huddled up between our bags in the undergrowth of some bushes planted next to Canterlot's train station while we listened to the sound of armed guards walking to and fro on the platform so close to us we could easily touch it with a hoof from our current position.

My heart was racing in my throat from fear of getting discovered, and I had buried myself in against my Changeling sister for comfort. Oval held on to me for much the same reason, I suspected, but we were as quiet as we could be so as not to draw attention to ourselves.

The train was emptied, checked by the Royal Guard, and then turned around for the return trip. After the passengers had boarded, it quickly sped past us to disappear into the tunnel in which that strange magic spell had been placed. It picked up speed far too quickly for us to hop on board, Oval shaking her head at me as I motioned at it.

Not half an hour passed before the next train pulled past us into the station, and the events repeated; passengers and cargo were checked by the Royal Guards, the train was turned about, and new passengers were let on before it pulled out of the station again.

And all the while we were huddled up like grey stones in the plants we had rolled into, not seeing a way out until the business would slow down.

I could not stifle a yawn, and Oval gave a nod to me as if to suggest I should try to get some sleep considering how tired I had been on the train. "I'll keep an eye out," she whispered at me. "You're going to need all the energy you can get once night falls."

Even through the fear and the noise, I managed to fall into a restless slumber against my sibling, too tired to fight it. When I woke up again, it was to the lighting of lamps on the street a few steps beyond the bushes as twilight settled over the land.

Oval's blue bug eyes moved slightly as she caught me stirring, and I knew they settled upon me even if we had no pupils to indicate such. She quickly shook her head as I opened my mouth to speak, and I closed it slowly while looking around. From what I could see past her insectoid body, there were quite a few ponies out on the street, and I caught a pegasus flying over to a nearby lamppost with a lit wick to set the lamp alight.

If we remained still, we could be mistaken for just a couple of rocks placed in amidst the plants, I expected, and few ponies who glanced our way by accident repeated the act. It slowly but surely settled my immediate fears of being noticed and captured by them, and I noticed Oval's breathing was far calmer than it had been shortly after we crashed into our current position.

A few hooffalls up above us drew my attention to the station platform just in time to see a halberd swing through the air as the guard holding it turned away from us. His armoured hooves made slow but deliberate steps away from the edge of the platform, and Oval finally let out a sigh I had not been aware she was holding.

"That guard had been standing there for way too long," she whispered at me.

"I didn't even notice them until they moved just now," I whispered back.

"That's why I shook my head earlier; he would have heard us. What was it you wanted to say, Pearl?" Oval explained.

"How long did I sleep for?" I asked.

"Half the day. I made sure you did not snore," she returned. "You really needed it. You think you're ready to go for a run? We don't have long before another guard will move to stand up there, and they stay there like statues for far too long to chance not being seen. They will soon carry torches with them, and we can't hide from that."

"But what about the crowds?" I asked, motioning at the ponies on the street.

"They don't carry weapons on them. We need to run fast and I need you to stay on my tail as close as you can. No matter what turn I take, take it with me. If I jump into a building, follow. Don't pause, don't think, just follow," Oval pressed.

"I think I can do that, Burst," I agreed. "Do we take the bags along?"

"If we leave them here, they will be found. If we take them along, they may slow us down," Oval pondered. "Take them anyway. If we're getting pursued we can throw them at the guards."

"When do we go?" I asked, reaching out for my bag with my mind, ready to let my magic grab hold of it.

"Now," Oval decided, letting go of me and rolling away, her magic erupting from her horn and grabbing her own bag as she rolled into a standing position.

I followed her lead, and we were soon running down the small slope to the street below, barrelling through the carefully tended bushes we had been hiding in.

We must have been quite a sight for the inhabitants of the city as we came bursting out of the bushes, our green magic flaring around us to make sure our bags followed; a pair of Changelings, out in the open as if we had no fear of being caught.

The resulting panic sent the ponies fleeing in all directions, but I kept my focus on Oval's rear end and followed a hooffall behind it. I barely took note of the buildings as we rushed by them, the sound of ponies crying out in panic lost to my ears, and we weaved our way deeper into the city as fast as we could.

Oval appeared to know which way to go, even if she must have been making decisions on the fly as to whether to turn left, right, go under something, over other things, and - indeed - suddenly through an open window into a building!

I flew through it after her, kicked some dirty dishes off the kitchen cabinet beyond with my left back hoof as I made a wider turn than Oval, and we barely managed to avoid trampling a foal playing with their toys in the house's living room as we raced through it.

Oval sped out the door, through a group of ponies who were only just starting to respond to the chaos following in our wake, and through a back alley. My bag caught on something as I rushed after her, and I let go of it as instructed; nothing it held was as important as getting to safety.

Oval dove into a hole in the ground, and I not a moment after, setting my hooves down in some of the most foul-smelling water I had ever come across. As I sped through the tubular cavern after Oval, trying my best to keep up what with the sudden slippery ground, my mind made the connection I rather wish it had not; sewers.

We continued through the sewers underneath Canterlot until Oval shot up through an open manhole, her bag inches behind her. I jumped up to follow, but had to buzz my wings to get enough momentum to reach the pavement above. As I managed to set my hooves down on the stones, I stopped to find Oval directly in front of me, her bag set to her left. Beyond her stood a unicorn, horn charged with yellow magic, blocking our way.

"We're not your enemy," Oval spoke, her own magic doused and her pose one that clearly attempted to convey she was not ready to pounce upon the unicorn.

I lowered my head slightly as well, mimicking Oval's pose in an attempt to show the unicorn there was nothing to fear.

"You're really not catching us at our best," Oval continued as the unicorn remained silent.

"You're changelings," the other finally stated, narrowing her purple eyes set under her yellow mane.

"Can't change that," Oval agreed, taking a careful step back to me. "We can't allow ourselves to be captured. Please get out of our way?"

The unicorn gave a quick look past her purple flank on which a white flower sat as her cutiemark. Her yellow tail flicked as the sound of guards rushing down the streets drew nearer.

"Back down?" I whispered to Oval, mentally steeling myself to head back down into the sewers again.

The unicorn turned back to face us again, her eyes meeting mine for a brief moment, and then her magic doused. "Follow me, quickly," she spoke, turning tail and running off into the street to our right.

Oval grabbed her bag with her teeth, then gave chase, with me close on her tail.

The unicorn led us down the street, then opened the door to a house and remained standing in front of it. "In here, there's a door under the stairs, get in there, close it, and be quiet."

Oval and I rushed past her, and Oval's magic pulled the door under the stairs open for us to rush into a cabinet filled to the brim with spices and assorted dried plants. She pulled the door closed again behind me, and we sat in the darkness of the cramped room listening to the sounds of heavy hooffalls drawing nearer.

The front door to the house closed with a soft click, dampening the sound even more than the cabinet door already had, but we could still hear the sound of a dozen guards as they came ever closer.

I swallowed strongly as they came to a sudden halt, and we could hear a male voice speaking in a demanding tone of voice. The twin doors between us kept us from hearing what was said, but it was met with the sound of the unicorn's voice. The two voices had a conversation which we could only guess at, and then the male voice spoke up again in a clear command. The hooffalls continued immediately after, now drawing away from our location.

I felt Oval's breath on me as she sighed out in relief, and leaned in to give her a soft nuzzle. That could have ended much worse for us. With the guards now drawing away, we were no longer in immediate danger... unless that unicorn turned out to have a hidden agenda.


	4. Chapter 4

Oval and I, sat in the storage cabinet under the stairs of a Canterlot pony's home, could only wait in darkness as we heard the front door to the house open, and somepony walking in at a casual pace.

The door clicked close again after them, then clicked again as a lock was put in place.

The sound of hooves falling gently on the wooden floor of the house drew near, and a yellow glow lit up the door's handle before it was gently pulled open to reveal the unicorn mare looking in at us.

"So... you're changelings," she started, finding Oval and me huddled together, our adrenaline still rushing through our forms, "but you're not here to fight? Colour me curious."

Oval and I just stared up at her, realizing her purple eyes were going over our forms as if she had never had a moment to truly see one of us in the flesh, so to speak.

"My name's Camellia, and I welcome you to my house as long as you don't intend to bite my head off or anything like that," the unicorn continued as neither Oval nor me spoke up.

I brought my tongue out to lick around my fangs, knowing full well they looked more dangerous than they really were. "I don't want to bite anyone's head off," I mumbled.

"Well, that's good, then," Camellia offered with a weak smile. "Are you two going to keep sitting around in my pantry, or can I get you to join me in my living room? The blinds are closed for the night, so nopony outside can see you."

Oval swallowed strongly next to me, and then gave me a soft nudge. "I think she's as safe as anypony can be for us right now, Pearl."

"Yeah," I agreed, pushing myself away from my sibling and onto my four hooves to carefully walk out past the unicorn. "My name's Pearl, and that's Oval," I introduced ourselves to our host, giving the room I entered a good look.

Several soft chairs were set around a low coffeetable, while a large cabinet held books on botany and flower arrangements. It was something the unicorns' cutiemark had already made me expect to find, but I still smiled at seeing them. I slowly paced around the coffee table to one chair in particular, one set with its back to a wall on which a painting of a lush flowerbed in full bloom had been placed.

A low thud behind me indicated Oval having placed her bag on the floor, and I looked up to see her still standing halfway in the doorway to the pantry, eye-to-eye with the unicorn.

"Why?" Oval asked with a frown clear on her face. "You must have been here during our attack a few years back? Why risk it?"

The unicorn mare named Camellia gave a soft shrug. "I take things at face value. You could have ran through me. The two of you could have overpowered me. We could have stood in the streets fighting with tooth and hoof and magic until the guards had caught up to you," she started, closing the door behind Oval with her magic as she finally moved out enough to allow it.

"Instead," Camellia continued, "you withdrew your own magic, set your bag down, and backed away. You said you did not want to fight, and I had no reason to doubt you given your actions."

Oval carefully made for a different chair than the one I had moved to sit on, keeping one eye on the unicorn at all times as she moved, and Camellia made a point of taking a seat as centered in our view as possible. Both Oval and Camellia were acting as if they walked on eggshells, and I could see the tension in their muscles even as they spoke as potential friends. They were both still ready to respond if the situation turned sour.

With the three of us seated in our respective seats, I felt my fear subside slowly but surely. I realized the same must be true for the others, as an uncomfortable silence settled on the room we were in.

Camellia's eyes flicked between Oval and me, and I was sure she was drinking in every little inch of our appearances. We were so vastly different from the ponies when we could not use our magic to mimic them, what with our sleek grey skins and chitin plates, the big blue eyes on our sharp faces, and our fin-like mane and tail alternatives. I was sure the pony took notice of the holes which marred Oval's legs, fins, and wings, compared to mine which were still unaffected by the effects of our species' hunger for love.

"So," I finally started, which caused Camellia to jerk in surprise. "am I right thinking you're a botanist?"

The unicorn relaxed again at the question, and gave a nod. "Florist, but I dabble in botany in my own time. I have a small garden in the back, but you will be seen if you go there."

"I noticed your cutiemark and the books," I explained. "You've been looking us over since we got here, so I am sure you noticed we don't have cutiemarks ourselves."

"Yeah, I did," Camellia agreed.

"Our species doesn't get them," I pre-empted her.

"I see," Camellia answered with a nod.

"We could overtake you whenever we want to," Oval mumbled while looking at the wood floor in front of her seat. "You have no idea who you invited into your home."

Camellia tensed up hearing that, focusing her eyes on Oval again.

"We won't," I quickly added. "We will honour our host's trust in us, won't we sis?"

"Well, yes," Oval mumbled, her blue eyes meeting mine. "But we're going to need to figure out where to go from here. Before you get too hungry and lose control."

"Lose control?" Camellia asked, and I could sense the air around us becoming charged with magical energy even if her horn was not lit with it yet.

"Oh, well, short lesson about our species: We feed on love. That's what we need to survive," I explained. "I'm relatively new to this myself, and I still need to learn to deal with this hunger. I fed this morning, but Oval makes it seem like I might turn into the Hulk if I don't get fed before long."

"What's a hulk?" Oval asked, but I shook my head at her.

"Not important right now," I decided, keeping my focus on Camellia. "I don't know if we would have made it to a safe place in this city on our own, Camellia. Thank you for your help. I will do my utter best to not betray your trust, and I am sure Oval will as well. If there are any questions you have, please let us know?"

The unicorn fidgeted a bit on her chair, looking between us with a mixture of fear and trepidation. "I'm not sure I know where to start," she spoke honestly. "You look so much different from us..."

"We're not supposed to reveal ourselves to ponies," Oval brought up. "There was some kind of spell in the railway tunnel which made us lose our guises, or we would have looked just like you."

"We could have looked like your twin if not for that spell," I suggested with a smile, but Camellia winced as she looked in my direction. "Oh, right, fangs," I realized. "I'm trying to make a joke here, is all. Attempting to lighten the mood?"

"Yes, the fangs," the unicorn agreed. "I keep fighting the urge to flee."

"I don't think we can do anything to stop you feeling that," I sighed. "That has to come from you. We're not going to do anything to you. We're not the dangerous ones here; we're just trying to stay out of harm's way. We weren't even supposed to stop here for longer than an hour or so?"

"Two hours," Oval corrected me. "We only came here to take a train to Baltimare. I live close by there."

"You live near Baltimare?" Camellia asked as if she had some difficulty believing it.

"A lot of our siblings live in pony towns, Camellia. We're not as dangerous as ponies make us out to be. We just live among you without harming any of you," I explained. "There's a few who are supposed to live here in Canterlot as well, although I don't know if that spell...?" My voice trailed off as I spotted realisation hit Oval's face.

"...if that spell hit them, they would not be able to hold their guises either." she gasped, shaking her head in growing terror. "There's no telling how many of them were outed. We've had dozens of family members pass through here recently thanks to Canterlot being a travel hub. Any one of them could have gotten noticed by accident. Most likely one of the hatchlings, but it could have just as easily been one of our more experienced siblings..."

"Wait, you're saying there are dozens of Changelings in Canterlot at this very moment?" Camellia caught up, watching the both of us nod in her direction. "That explains why the guards have been on high alert for the past weeks."

"How many weeks?" Oval demanded. "How long have they been mobilized?"

"Three, four? They suddenly rushed through the streets one day and closed off all the gates, set up checkpoints, and started to harass anypony trying to go in or out of the city," Camellia answered. "It led to delivery problems for a lot of businesses here."

"You think Blaze made it through?" I asked of Oval, knowing Blaze having left the Hive a few weeks before us - headed for Vanhoover to meet with her circus troupe.

"If Blaze were here, we would have heard of her already," Oval chuckled half-heartedly. "Nothing can hold Blaze captured against her will for long."


	5. Chapter 5

Camellia, the purple-coated unicorn with her yellow mane and tail, sat peering between Oval and me as we tried to figure out which of our siblings left prior to Canterlot suddenly going on lockdown. No word of it had reached us in the Hive near Hollow Shades, so the guards must have intercepted any of our siblings who might have grown wise about it up to now. Before we knew what we were doing, we were listing the hatchlings we had seen leave in the past weeks to one another, trying to deduct which of them might have been the instigator thanks to having trouble holding their respective guises.

"Breeze is coming this way soon as well, isn't she?" I realized in growing horror, and Oval frowned deeply at my words.

"Unless we can get word out to steer clear of this place, yes," Oval agreed. "She was planning to go West as well, and most train lines heading there pass through Canterlot."

"I'm hearing so many names from you two," Camellia spoke up suddenly, catching us by surprise. We had almost forgotten she was there with us. "And you seem genuinely upset at the thought of something having happened to them."

"Well, yeah, they're family," I answered. "You care about your family as well, don't you?"

"I'm just surprised by it. I didn't expect changelings to have feelings like that," Camellia explained, and Oval let out a deep sigh.

"We're not too different," Oval stated bruskly. "I've been married to one of the most beautiful pony mares you can imagine. I care about her deeply. There are so many of us integrated in pony society that it would cripple your government if we were to suddenly all disappear at once. We have the same feelings you have, but we just look different from you. There's so many false preconceptions about us that we are forced to hide from you instead of coming out in the open. It drives me mad that I can't just be myself in front of my own mare because she would run from me in terror..."

Camellia's face blanked at the sudden stream of words from Oval, spat out by my sister in growing frustration at the situation.

"Keep calm, Burst," I warned, motioning at the closed blinds. "Shouting draws attention."

"Who's Burst?" the unicorn asked, and I nodded at Oval.

"Names are finnicky things," I chuckled. "You need to realise that we can take on the identities of a great many different ponies, at will. We change names as often as you change clothing."

"Doesn't that get confusing?" Camellia wondered, which actually made me laugh.

Her innocent question could have come from me not half a year ago, and I was reminded of how naive I had been back then. How alien Changelings had been to me. I had been turned into a Changeling, and had been forced to live with them day after day, and still it had taken me months to get comfortable enough among my siblings to identify them even from a distance, no matter the guise they had taken on.

Before that time, the thought of changing names, changing looks, and the huge amount of siblings running around without clear indication of a pattern made me as confused as this unicorn mare must be feeling right now. And she was only faced with Oval and me. Forget a whole Hive of changelings.

"Believe me or not, but it was confusing for me in the beginning as well," I told Camellia. "I'm not actually native to this place, but when I woke up as a newly hatched Changeling, my life was turned upside-down and I had to learn about all the new rules and things unique to our species. That took me a few months, so don't worry if you don't understand something after just a few minutes with us."

"She still doesn't know everything she needs to," Oval added.

"Oh, thank you for that," I snorted in her direction.

The unicorn mare looked utterly out of her depths, her ears drooping and her face a mixture of various emotions as she tried to make sense of it all.

"You wouldn't have tea in the house, would you?" I asked of her. "I think we could all use something to drink, and preparing it may give you some time to sort your thoughts out about us?"

"Tea? Yeah, I have tea," Camellia agreed, slipping off her seat and onto her hooves. "Do you have any preference?"

"Something calming, like a white tea?" I suggested. "Take your time preparing it, we won't go anywhere."

"If you've got a Summer Meadow mix, I'd love that," Oval piped up as Camellia walked off in the direction of the kitchen. "It's my mare's favourite."

After the unicorn left us for the kitchen and we could hear her rummage about, I put my attention back on my sister. "We're going to need to figure out how to get around this spell, don't we?"

"All magic dissipates eventually," Oval remarked quietly. "It's just a matter of time."

"But you've mentioned your mare too often since we got here," I suggested. "I've come to know you in these past months, Burst. Sure, you talk about your mare from time to time, but not this often. You're agitated as well. You're thinking we won't make it out of here, aren't you?"

"We're stuck in a random pony's house in the middle of the pony capital, with pony guards roaming the streets looking for us specifically. We have no idea how many of our siblings are stuck in their dungeons, we don't know what they know or what spells they have to identify us, and we can't reach out to anyone outside of town to keep others from arriving here," Oval listed. "I've never been this deep in the shit before, and I've been infiltrating their society for decades now."

"You mean this is worse than that open magic battle between Blaze and Moonshine over in the spa?" I asked, "Or when our Queen caught all of us and was ready to pretty much take our heads for going in against her? Or when we were trying to get small groups of Hatchlings out of the communal halls and watch each of them break down when they realized there was no way they could go back to their old lives?"

Oval let out a deep sigh at hearing me list it all. "It's been an eventful year, hasn't it?"

"We have the support of one of the pony princesses," I told her. "Sure, she's over in Ponyville, but I'm sure she will come over and try to help us if she becomes aware of the situation here. If I know Twilight Sparkle, she can't let this go on without her meddling in it."

"I did mention not being able to get a word out, right?" Oval coughed. "I mean, we're safe now, at this moment, but what if this unicorn turns on us? What if we get spotted by a guard? Until we get around this spell they put on us, we'll stand out like a lone tree in a grassy field."

"I'm surprised you got a few decades of experience on me but I'm the one trying to think our way out of this while you're giving in to your fears," I suggested calmly. "I mean, I get it; I know you're afraid that everything you've built up so far will come crashing down if we make the wrong move. You mentioned it a few times when we were dealing with the impending invasion. But we stopped that. We stuck together as a clutch and convinced our Queen to give us a chance. We convinced Starlight Glimmer to be our friend, for Moonshine to study with Twilight Sparkle... we can just do this one pony at a time."

I noticed a shadow in the doorway between the living room and where the kitchen was, but kept it to myself. If Camellia wanted to listen in, let her. She took a giant risk taking us in, and I was giving her the benefit of the doubt as well. Trust had to come from both directions if it was to work.

"You're forgetting that they're all spread out across Equestria now," Oval protested. "With Blaze in Vanhoover and Breeze back at the Hive, there's not much of a clutch to speak of."

"I'm here, aren't I? You guys adopted me into your clutch for a reason. I'm not going anywhere. No matter what happens, I will be there for you, Burst," I entrusted to her. "We can try and find out what happened to our siblings who were here in the city once we figure out how to get around that stupid spell, and maybe we can find out how to get the ponies' trust so they may let the rest of our family go, but let's take it one step at a time? Let's keep ourselves from getting overwhelmed by things?"

The shadow at the doorway moved as the boiling water made the kettle whistle, and I could hear it being picked up and water poured out while Oval tried to collect her thoughts.

"I think that's the reason it worked out," she finally said in a half-whisper. "You're taking things as they come. One thing at a time. The rest of us, we just... Breeze is so random, Blaze far too hot headed... and I just get overwhelmed by things. You helped us stay on track, keep focus on the important things."

"If I don't focus on one problem at a time, I'd get overwhelmed as much as you would, sis," I sighed. "I mean, remember how we met; I was tossed into a different world, into a different life, completely unable to change my situation. I was forced to adapt to it. You've seen how it affected the other hatchlings; we simply weren't given a choice but to adapt at such a fast pace. When they were finally given time to deal with their emotions, they broke down. No exceptions. They swallowed it, but cried in their sleep, or cried openly. They blamed us, shouted angrily, kicked about themselves, blew parts of the hive up from their errant magic releasing thanks to their anger. None of it was pretty."

Oval gave a thoughtful nod at that.

"You think I'm doing any better, sis? I'm held up solely by your acceptance of me. By being included in your clutch and the plans you had. By your love. But it's still a fucked-up situation, if you pardon my French," I continued. "If I let it all wash over me, I'll break down just as much as the other hatchlings have."

A tray floated in-between Oval and me and landed on the coffee table, a trio of teacups filled with steamy hot liquid on it, together with a small bowl filled with assorted cookies. As the yellow glow of the unicorn's magic receded from it, Oval and I turned our attention to our host standing a short distance away, noting the wet fur underneath her purple eyes.

"I'm sorry, I've been listening in from the other room," Camellia spoke softly. "I don't understand it all, but I get you're in it to help your family out. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know? Family is everything to me as well and you sound like good people, no matter what you look like on the outside."


	6. Chapter 6

While slowly sipping at the tea Camellia set down for us, and nibbling on the cookies, Oval and I tried our best to get the unicorn mare up to speed as quick as she was able to absorb it. The idea that there were thousands of Changelings living in the pony lands unbeknownst to their neighbours was something that she clearly had some difficulty with, even if Oval stressed the different array of jobs and relationships they held were beneficial to pony society as a whole.

The idea that a smaller number of Changelings were now prevented from returning to those lives because of that spell which held Canterlot in its grasp, forcing them to hide or get incarcerated in Canterlot Castle's dungeons, was truly upsetting to the unicorn pony. Family meant everything to her, and hearing we thought along similar lines made her all the more determined to help us out.

While she was a unicorn, she had no idea what kind of spell could have been used to take our guises away from us, as her magic had been largely used for her job as a florist or her attempts to branch out to the greater field of botany. She knew just what was needed for plants to grow big and strong, for flowers to last for weeks and months even after their stems were cut, and how to splice different plants together in order to create a new species which had the benefits from both parent species and none of the weaknesses.

We briefly talked about how we thought Changeling magic worked compared to Unicorn magic, and how we could sense the energy patterns at times, but Camellia was entirely out of her league in that respect. It just didn't connect, and she was not going to be of any help in that area.

As a unicorn, and an employed resident of Canterlot, she was open to gathering supplies for us during daytime, and figuring out of there were others who might be able to help us out where she could not. Oval stressed to no end that Camellia had to be very careful, considering the way we were being viewed by ponies in general. Camellia acknowledged each of Oval's fears and did her best to silence them, but it was clear she was worried about the consequences as well.

As the evening went on and the three of us started to yawn, Camellia led us up to the first floor and into a messy room which smelled like dirt. Her magic quickly moved her botany experiments out of the way until there was ample room on the floor, and a set of sheets flew in after so she could lay out a rudimentary bed for us. As the unicorn retreated to her own room, Oval and I made ourselves comfortable and were soon fast asleep.

The next day arrived with the sight of Camellia standing in the doorway watching Oval and me sleep. I blinked my eyes open to see her standing there, an odd look on her face, and tried to connect her facial expression with an emotion. Failing that, I wurmed my way out of Oval's hold and stood up from the ground.

Camellia moved back as I approached her, motioning for me to join her in the hallway. She closed the door to the other room behind me with her magic, and sat down in the small hallway. I followed her example, but moved my forehooves up to rub some sleep out of my eyes.

"Apart from your looks, you sleep like my nieces do," Camellia suggested. "There is a lot of love and trust there, far removed from the angry mob I saw descend upon my city a few years back."

"That was a mistake," I told her directly. "Our Queen has been having the same problems with understanding you ponies as you have had with understanding us. There's not been a dialogue between our species. All that exists are the preconceptions which just stack up on top of one another. Oval and other siblings of mine have been trying to fix that for decades now; trying to get a mutual understanding going."

"And this situation now is destroying their work, isn't it?" Camellia realised. "We're faced with you being unable to hide among us, unable to do your work, and with ponies who let their fears of your outward appearance get the better of them?"

"Pretty much," I agreed. "We were just on our way to Oval's home in Hoofton, a place where she has a job and a life as a pony stallion. She has a wife there, and is respected in the community. But we can't go there looking like our true selves; nopony would accept us. Individuals are smart, but groups are dumb. And groups who panic won't listen to reason."

Camellia closed her eyes and sat in silence with me for a moment. I could hear Oval's slow breathing from the other side of the door - still fast asleep.

"You have an aura around you of someone who is to be trusted," she finally spoke. "If you had not come up out of the sewer when you did, I would have released my magic onto your sister and called for the guards. I don't trust her."

"I do? Er... well, thanks for not doing that, I guess?" I stumbled. "I'm not really sure what to do with that?"

"I might know somepony who is ready to listen, but they need to meet you. Without your sister present. Is that a problem?" Camellia asked directly.

"I don't think it's a problem, but we're kind of confined to your home right now," I pointed out. "I can't go elsewhere to meet with them, and Oval is going to be in the house here as well."

"Oval, Burst, I don't care what you call them," the unicorn stated. "If you can convince them to stay out of sight until my friend is ready to meet with them as well, I can get you in contact with someone who has access to the palace and may be able to find out whether they're holding your family there or not."

"I can't promise all of my family are as trustworthy as I seem to be, Camellia," I mumbled. "They do mean a lot to me, though. We told you yesterday how important it is for us to be able to feed. Stuck in a prison cell without the ability to feed, we'll go feral... we won't be able to feed if we can't mimic a pony's looks. All of this can go wrong so quickly..."

"There are some plants which require live food, like the Dionaea muscipula, but that does not make them any less precious than the flowers I work with," the unicorn offered up. "I've been thinking of you along those lines; you look similar to us, but you just need a different diet. As long as I respect your diet, we can co-exist, true?"

I gave her a slow nod. "I hadn't thought of it that way yet, but that's a good analogy. I think we're insects, though. Have you seen our wings yet?" With that I turned my back on her a little and brought my wings out from under the chitin covering my back.

"I saw, and heard, them during the attack," Camellia agreed, but still leaned in to get a better look at my wings as I kept them still for her. "I think you're right. Those are insect wings alright. Now I'm feeling like I should not have mentioned the flytrap as an example."

"Meh, I'm big enough not to get swallowed by one," I chuckled. "I'm fine with a little humorous jabbing at my expense, please don't worry about offending me."

The unicorn pulled back from me with a careful smile. "This is what I meant; everything about you tells me I should trust you. It's the only reason I've even thought of inviting my friend here to meet you. Your sister there? There's something off on her. She feels wrong."

"I can't comment on that, really. She's done so much for me over the past half year that I can't but trust her," I sighed. "Our family is a complicated one, especially thanks to the problems we have with feeding and getting others to trust us when we can look like anyone else we meet. Some of my family members throw themselves at that role of evil antagonist; they like scaring others while trying to take what they can. They don't care about what they leave behind. But there's a growing group of us who are invested in long-term relationships. Who don't want fast food, but want to nurture our crops, if I can use a botanical term."

"And you're one of them," Camellia stated.

"Well, no... I'm not from here. It's complicated, but I want to go back eventually. I don't belong here with the rest of you. Oval is the one who wants to get things working right. She wants so badly to return to her mare and have a long life together with them," I explained while looking over to the closed door between my sibling and us. "You may not get the right vibe from her, but she can't help that. She really wants to figure out how to bring ponies and changelings together on friendly terms. She wants this to work out. And this situation here, the potential for this to turn into a war between our species... The thought alone is breaking her."

The unicorn reached up with her left foreleg to brush some hair out of her eyes, letting my words work on her mind. "Nopony wants a war," she finally emitted in a worried tone of voice.

"None of us do either," I told her. "We almost had a war half a year ago. It's only thanks to Oval that we managed to stop it before it started. Our Queen was about ready to take Equestria by force, which would have done irrepairable damage to all of us. There would have been no coming back from that. Oval and her sisters recruited me to try and get our Queen to change her mind."

"Given that there was no war half a year ago, I take it you succeeded?" Camellia deducted.

"You'd think that, but no; I failed," I told her honestly. "We had this big plan to get our Queen to listen to me, an outsider, but when it came to me to talk to her, I got overwhelmed by her pheromones. I was completely out of it; didn't know who I was or where I was, only that I wanted to do everything I could to keep smelling those pheromones of hers. The only reason we succeeded was because we had managed to sneak two ponies in with us. Starlight Glimmer and Pinkie Pie managed to..."

"Pinkie Pie?" Camellia interrupted. "I know her; she's friends with the Princess Twilight Sparkle, isn't she?"

"Er, yeah. I think Pinkie is friends with everypony, including Oval and me, but you're right," I agreed.

"Yeah, I know her and her sister Maud Pie. Maud studied geology at the same school where I studied botany," Camellia revealed.

"No kidding?" I replied in honest surprise. "I haven't met Maud, but Pinkie is definitely a friend of mine. I'm glad to hear you know her as well!"

"What would you have looked like if that spell had not taken your magic away?" Camellia asked out of the blue, and I folded my wings back under my chitin as I straightened up again.

"Well, er," I started carefully. "I do have a look which is kind of my... identity... I mean, I'm called Pearl because of a bit of a stupid story. I didn't quite mimic anypony in particular, but I would have sat here as an teenage earthpony mare with a light grey coat, a light aquamarine mane and tail with lighter green highlights, bordering on grey... deep yellow eyes, with a cutiemark of a brown conch shell with a pearl in front of it."

The unicorn mare's eyes scanned over me as if she was trying to imagine it as an overlay over my insect like current form, the corners of her mouth rising slowly. "I can see that," she finally spoke to me. "I can see your words coming out of somepony like that, yes. Almost like a fresh cucumber sandwich. Is that what you feel like on the inside? Past the dark skin and sharp fangs?"

"I don't know, I haven't really gone through any other guises for any length of time to get used to them as much as that one. I guess it's as much my identity as anything else? I would feel more comfortable looking like that now, than I do sitting here bared to you and anypony else who may see me, if that's what you're asking?" I returned, reaching up with my left hoof to rub at my left cheek. "I dunno, I... I haven't really spoken with anyone about it yet. My clutch have all been in this thing longer than I have, and they each have their own guises to fall back on. Blaze and Burst have pretty permanent ones, but Breeze skips between them like she has no attachment to them whatsoever. Pinkie just accepted me for who I am, no matter what I looked like. I don't think Starlight wants to talk about it in depth. We remind her of a bad period in her past."

The unicorn's purple eyes flitted across me again, and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable as I realized just how much information I was giving her, and the way in which she got me to spill it. What was she thinking, exactly? Where was she going with it? If Camellia ended up not being trustworthy, I would have given her so much information that she could ruin me and all other Changelings roaming through Equestria.

I was starting to feel nauseous again, but this time not due to some magic spell keeping me from taking on a pony guise. This time it was due to the full weight of the situation finally coming down on me like the hammer I evaded for over half a year now.

Camellia noticed the change in me, and her ears flattened. I could sense the magic flowing in her direction as something about me made her decide to get defensive.

"What are you doing?" she spoke carefully, backing away from me in the hallway.

"I need you to promise me," I spoke to her, hearing the sharpness of my Changeling voice hiss the words at her. Just my appearance was enough to make anypony worried, but the voice did not help in the least bit to calm them down when they were already on edge.

"Promise you what?" Camellia asked, her horn starting to glow with a soft, almost ambient yellow light as if she was pre-charging it before releasing the full force of her magic into it.

"Don't... I'm not doing anything, I just need to make sure," I warned her, but at the same time felt the muscles around my resin glands twitch. My body was ready to meet the challenge of a fight, even if I was desperately trying to get myself back under control again.

Camellia was in a similar situation; her magic ready to go, her mind trying to figure out why we were suddenly facing off like this, and I could read it on her face.

"Don't betray us, please... don't... We need to get this working. We need friends. We need trust," I listed, finishing by swallowing a bit of goop which had leaked from my resin glands onto my tongue.

Camellia's eyes were scanning over me, even as she continued to back away from me, but her facial expression told me enough; I had done irrepairable damage to her ability to trust me. We had walked the thin rope and I had somehow managed to cut it by doing nothing... nothing at all. It had just been a moment of fear flashing over my face, fear which had reflected onto the unicorn before me as if it needed her to plant its seed in so it could grow.

And now we were both faced with this beast between us, and we were losing the battle. It was untouchable, invisible, all-encompassing, and we were just a pair of strangers caught in a situation neither of us wanted to be in.

The pony was faced with a creature which had plagued her nightmares ever since her city had been attacked by a vast army of them, and while she had tried to give me the benefit of the doubt, there was just no way we were going to overcome that in just a single night and couple of chats. She had the upper hoof; she could have the guards come down upon us in force by just the smallest of actions. All she needed to do was reveal us to her neighbours.

There was a click to my left and the door to the room Oval and I had been sleeping in swung open...

Yellow lightning flew past me at the same time as green goop shot out of my mouth, and I flew backwards down a flight of stairs once I was hit by Camellia's magic. The magic spell she hit me with prevented me from opening my wings to correct my fast descent, and I hit the ground like a grey brick, losing consciousness from the impact...


End file.
